1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to electronic devices, and more specifically to data processing devices having floating-point processing capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing devices may use integer numbers or floating-point numbers to carry out computations. Floating-point numbers are use for calculations involving very large or very small numbers. Floating-point numbers are typically represented within a data processing device by an exponent and mantissa, or significand. Various formats for representing numbers within a data processing device are possible, and in particular for representing floating point numbers. IEEE 754 is a standard that specifies a family of related floating-point formats. Formats, including IEEE 754, allow for values to be stored that represent something other than a floating-point number in response to conditions that can arise during a floating-point calculation. For example, the result of dividing zero by zero is not a number in the normal sense. Thus, a floating-point format can specify a particular manner to store information that by definition represents a floating-point result that is not a number. In accordance with a floating-point format, a value that represents something other than a number, e.g., not a number can be referred to a “NaN”, or a “NaN value”.
NaN values may participate as input operands to floating-point instructions in some data processing systems. Such floating-point instructions, in response to receiving a NaN as an operand, will produce a resultant that is also a NaN value. A resultant or operand having a NaN value can be referred to as “resultant/operand that is a NaN”, or as “NaN resultant/operand”.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.